Sleepless
by Ralinde
Summary: It's the middle of the night and Lucy is wide awake. She does not want to go to work the next day, and Lysander doesn't want her to go either. For The Original Horcrux in the 2013 Gift-Giving Extravaganza.


_A/N: This is gift for The Original Horcrux in the 2013 Gift-Giving Extravaganza. I hope you'll enjoy it!_

_It's also for the House Point Competition, with the prompt 'help' and the As Strong As We Are United Competition, for team 'The Nightcircus' and the prompt 'unexpected'._

* * *

Lucy woke up in the middle of the night. She pushed herself up on her elbow and glanced at her alarm clock. In blinking red letters it told her that it was only 3:17 am. So why on earth was she awake already? She listened carefully for any strange or unexpected noises that could have caused to wake at this untimely hour. But it appeared that all was quiet apart from the occasional hooting of an owl. She squinted into the darkness, but nothing strange was to be seen at all. She didn't smell anything weird either and when she looked next to her, she found Lysander still sleeping, though he was twisting and turning in his sleep. _I must have had a bad dream or something_, she decided. She couldn't remember anything of it, but perhaps that was a good thing if it really had been a bad dream.

She tried to go back to sleep, but found that she couldn't: she was wide-awake. She tried counting sheep like her Mum used to tell her, but gave up at three hundred sixty-seven. It obviously wasn't working. She watched the numbers on her alarm clock go to a quarter to four, four o'clock, a quarter past four... and still she couldn't sleep.

With a sigh, she got out of bed. _Perhaps some hot cacao will help_, she mused. She climbed over Lysander, careful not to wake him too. Usually, it didn't matter that she slept on the side where the bed stood against the wall, but when she had to get out in the night, like now, she wished she slept on the other side. Luckily, her climbing out of bed hadn't woken Lysander and she slipped into her slippers and bathrobe.

She drank her cacao on the couch, but sleep just wouldn't come. _Damnit, I have to work again tomorrow_, she thought irritated. _Why can't I just sleep, like any normal person?_

She was getting a bit desperate now. Maybe reading would help. She picked the dullest book she could find – one of her old History Of Magic books on Troll Wars – out of her bookcase and crawled back into bed. That should do the trick, right? She always fell asleep during her History Of Magic lessons, so if that didn't work, she didn't now what would. With the night-light on, she started reading and in fact, the book was indeed a great way to make her sleepy again. At about five o'clock, she started yawning and felt her eyes go heavy. She did not even see the alarm clock jump to five past five anymore, because by that time, she had already fallen back asleep.

It felt like she had only drifted off to sleep ten minutes ago when her alarm went off two hours later. Lucy groaned and buried her head in her pillow. _She didn't want to get up yet, she felt so incredibly tired!_

"Don't you need to go out?" Lysander asked half an hour later when the buzzer went for the third time.

"I'm still tired," she grumbled. "I've been up half of the night."

"What for?" Lysander asked, immediately concerned. "Are you ill?"

"No, I'm not ill. I just couldn't sleep. Bad dream, I guess. Didn't you notice me climbing out of bed?"

Lysander shook his head.

"Lucky you. It's so not fair! I was up half the night and I have to go to work, and you slept all night and you're free today!"

"You could always stay with me today," Lysander said with a sly smile.

Lucy punched him gently. "You know I can't do that, I have to go to work."

"You could always call in sick," he grinned. "Then I could bring you breakfast in bed and we would have the entire day to ourselves…"

"Ly, I can't."

"Are you sure?" His hand playfully traced a line from her waist to the curve of her hips.

Lucy moaned softly. His offer was really tempting and he made it so hard to resist… "Ly, stop teasing me. You're making it incredibly hard for me to get up and go to work."

"Maybe that's my intention."

"I honestly wished I could take the day off and stay with you. But I'll have to take you up on your offer tomorrow."

"Hmm, I don't know if it's valid until then…" he teased.

"Oh, shut up," Lucy laughed. "It'd better still be valid tomorrow. I'll throw in a bonus," she grinned.

"And what might that be?"

"You'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out."

"Well, in that case, I guess I'll just have to wait and see." He heaved his hands in mock surrender before kissing her on the cheek. "You'd better get out then or you'll be late."

"I know that." Lucy sighed. "Could you hand me my shirt? It's cold outside the blankets."

"Oh, so you want me to get cold instead?"

"Ly!" she protested.

"Sorry, just kidding. Here it is."

"Thank you."

Lucy put the shirt on and then got up and got dressed completely.

"Hey, you want me to make you breakfast so you don't have to rush so much?"

"That would be great. Thanks, love. You really are too good to be true, you know that?"

"I know," Lysander grinned. "But it's nice to hear you say it." He slipped out of bed as well and put on a sweater. "Cheese sandwich?"

"Yes please."

Twenty minutes later, Lucy was ready to go. She checked her bag to see if she got everything and then stepped into their fireplace.

Lysander kissed her. "Missing you already."

Lucy kissed him back and then grabbed a handful of Floo powder. "Enjoy your day off," she said. "I'll be back before you know it."

As she threw the Floo Powder around her feet and stated her work address, she watched Lysander's face disappear in a blur and she smiled. Lysander was the best husband she could wish for and she was already looking forward to returning to him tonight.


End file.
